Create your own customized ceramic tiles.
Ceramic tile has been used in building and art since the time that pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt, as early as 2600 B.C. Ceramic tiles are now made with pottery kilns in factories and backyards around the world. If you have your own kiln, you can make your own ceramic tiles, or you can purchase plain ones at your local home-improvement or craft store and customize them for a personalized art or decorating project, such as a new kitchen back splash or bathroom floor, with a few simple materials and some creativity.
Instructions
1. Freshen up a kitchen with a new ceramic tile back splash that suits your own taste, or make your kids' bathroom festive with a new ceramic tile floor decorated in the letters of the alphabet or ocean animals. To achieve a rustic look, select unglazed white or other solid color tiles for floor projects. To achieve a glazed look, such as for a shiny kitchen back splash, choose solid-color glazed tiles.
2. Select enamel and ceramic paint in colors to create your customized tiles. For example, you could purchase solid light-blue ceramic tiles and ceramic paints in vibrant colors such as red, yellow, orange, green, white, pink and purple to add brightly colored letters or animals to a kids' bathroom. Purchase a clear enamel spray paint or paint that matches the base color of the tile to add a sheen to the finished tiles.
3. Scrub the tiles with an abrasive sponge to create a rough surface to which the paint will adhere. Wear a face mask and spray the tiles with the enamel spray paint. Allow the tiles to dry completely.
4. Pour ceramic paint colors onto a paint palette. Use small paintbrushes to paint animals or letters free-form onto the ceramic tiles. If you want, roll tile stamps (such as 10 cm alphabet tile stamps) into the paints, alternating colors between stamps, to create a stamped letter on each tile. Allow tiles to dry completely before installing them.
